Baghdad:Â The 46 Indian nurses from Kerala, currently in Iraq’s Tikrit, the town seized by the fighters from Al Qaeda-influenced Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) last week, are completely safe, the Indian embassy in Iraq has said. “The International Red Crescent Society volunteers visited the 46 Indian nurses that were stranded in a hospital they were working in since last week,” Indian Ambassador A Ajay Kumar said.
The 46 nurses stranded in Tikrit are mostly from Kerala, and 41 construction workers are stranded in Mosul. In the government’s first reaction to the rapid military victories by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), MEA spokesperson said India is “deeply concerned with deteriorating security situation in Iraq, resulting out of recent attacks and taking over of some cities, including of Mosul and Tikrit by terrorist outfits since June 8, 2014, which is a direct threat to the security and territorial integrity of Iraq.â€
The Indian government asked the nurses to write if they required kind of assistance from Indian government when they will return to country. Most of them reportedly say they would prefer to stay on, said sources in the Ministry for External Affairs.
The government estimates that 200 Indians, many of them construction workers, are currently based in Iraq, where the Shi’ite-led government is struggling to stave off an onslaught by Sunni militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, which seize the northern cities of Mosul and Tikrit last week and now threatens Baghdad.
The Indian Embassy in Baghdad has set up a 24-hour helpline which can be accessed for information or assistance.